LGTM2
On 7/15/26 6:58 p.m., Reilly Grant wrote:
IWA OWNER LGTM
I think eventually this feature could be replaced by proposed APIs for
programmatic PWA self-installation and web application stores. However
the current IWA restriction is appropriate given the potential for
application spoofing.
Reilly Grant | Software Engineer |[email protected] |Google Chrome
<https://www.google.com/chrome>
On Wed, Jul 15, 2026 at 8:38 AM Chris Harrelson
<[email protected]> wrote:
LGTM1
On Wed, Jul 15, 2026 at 4:22 AM Chromestatus
<[email protected]> wrote:
*Contact emails*
[email protected]
*Explainer*
https://github.com/WICG/sub-apps
*Specification*
https://wicg.github.io/sub-apps
*Design docs*
https://github.com/WICG/sub-apps
*Summary*
Sub apps allow developers to create multiple apps under a
single Isolated Web App
([IWA](https://chromeos.dev/en/web/isolated-web-apps))
installation. Each Sub app has its own distinct name, icons
and OS integrations. Sub apps appear on the desktop shelf with
a distinct identity from the parent IWA, offering separate OS
capabilities, such as file type association. This allows a
single software package to present different, isolated
functionalities to the user while maintaining a single,
unified IWA install and update process. There are three new
enterprise policies available to control the Sub apps API: -
[DefaultSubAppsWithoutPromptsSetting](https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/#DefaultSubAppsWithoutPromptsSetting)
specifies globally (for all IWAs) if user permission prompts
are required to install Sub apps. The policies below can
override this default. -
[SubAppsWithoutPromptsAllowedForOrigins](https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/#SubAppsWithoutPromptsAllowedForOrigins)
specifies a list of IWA URLs that can add or update Sub apps
without user permission prompts. -
[SubAppsWithoutPromptsBlockedForOrigins](https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/#SubAppsWithoutPromptsBlockedForOrigins)
specifies a list of IWA URLs that can add Sub apps with user
permission prompts only.
*Blink component*
Content>WebApps
<https://issues.chromium.org/issues?q=customfield1222907:%22Content%3EWebApps%22>
*Web Feature ID*
Missing feature
*Motivation*
Without this API developers are forced into splitting the
application into separate ones which complicates distribution
or bundle everything into a single huge application that can
potentially confuse users.
*Initial public proposal*
https://github.com/WICG/proposals/issues/282
*TAG review*
Tag does not review Isolated Web Apps. It was stated publicly
here
https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/842#issuecomment-2917031448
*TAG review status*
Pending
*Goals for experimentation*
None
*Risks*
*Interoperability and Compatibility*
Other browsers may choose to implement this API.
/Gecko/: No signal
/WebKit/: No signal
/Web developers/: No signals
/Other signals/:
*Security*
Sub-apps share origin identity and all local data stores with
their parent app, exposing them to standard same-origin
security boundaries. Permission grants are shared
bidirectionally; granting a permission to a sub-app
automatically extends that permission to the parent app. There
is a risk of identity spoofing and launcher hijacking, which
is mitigated by restricting the API to isolated contexts.
Registering custom OS integrations requires explicit user
approval to prevent unauthorized protocol handling or file
type hijacking.
*WebView application risks*
Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing
APIs, such that it has potentially high risk for Android
WebView-based applications?
/No information provided/
*Debuggability*
There's no special devTools support for this feature. It is
possible to add sub apps, remove and list them via devTools
console raw javascript execution.
*Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms
(Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?*
No
This feature is implemented on desktop platforms, although it
will only be available to the end users on platforms that
support Isolated Web Apps, which is currently only ChromeOS.
Android is excluded because installing arbitrary apps is
complicated there and needs additional work.
*Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests
<https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/testing/web_platform_tests.md>?*
No
JS API interface tests are in
third_party/blink/web_tests/external/wpt/subapps.
https://wpt.fyi/results/subapps?label=master&label=experimental&aligned&q=subapps
<https://wpt.fyi/results/subapps?label=master&label=experimental&aligned&q=subapps>
More complete tests that cover all cases are in
chrome/browser/web_applications/sub_apps/sub_apps_service_impl_browsertest.cc
*DevTrial instructions*
https://github.com/vkrot-cell/subapps-demo
*Flag name on about://flags*
#enable-sub-apps
*Finch feature name*
SubApps
*Rollout plan*
Will ship enabled for all users
*Requires code in //chrome?*
True
*Tracking bug*
https://buganizer.corp.google.com/issues/414729785
*Launch bug*
https://launch.corp.google.com/launch/4466158
*Measurement*
Separate programmatic counters for the .idl methods and
attributes (via MeasureAs) are included to track the stats for
API usage: SubAppsAdd SubAppsRemove SubAppsList
*Availability expectation*
Feature is available only in Isolated Web Apps on desktop
platforms. https://chromestatus.com/feature/5146307550248960
*Adoption expectation*
Expected to be used initially by a small number of developers
inside Isolated Web Apps.
*Adoption plan*
Working directly with developers that are planning to rely on
the API.
*Estimated milestones*
Shipping on desktop 153
DevTrial on desktop 150
*Anticipated spec changes*
Open questions about a feature may be a source of future web
compat or interop issues. Please list open issues (e.g. links
to known github issues in the project for the feature
specification) whose resolution may introduce web
compat/interop risk (e.g., changing to naming or structure of
the API in a non-backward-compatible way).
/No information provided/
*Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status*
https://chromestatus.com/feature/6260680824061952?gate=4662441016426496
*Links to previous Intent discussions*
Intent to Prototype:
https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/6a3408fc.3af95f39.17d45c.0404.GAE%40google.com
This intent message was generated by Chrome Platform Status
<https://chromestatus.com>.
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